Destna, South Bohemia, Aug 22 (CTK) – Emil Bocek, one of the last few living Czech pilots serving in the British Royal Air Force (RAF) during WWII, attended a meeting to commemorate the 1944 air battle of Jindrichuv Hradec in this south Bohemian town Saturday.
The participants could also see a model of an ultra-light aircraft dubbed “The Flying Flea,” which was invented by Frenchman Henri Midget before WWII, in the aviation museum in Destna.
“The Flying Flea is completely unique. There are only two models of this plane in the Czech Republic. One is in the National Technical Museum [in Prague] and the other in Destna,” Vladislav Burian, chairman of the History and Aviation Club in Jindrichuv Hradec, told CTK.
He added that the Destna museum had gained the plane from the family of Petr Slechta, from Ceske Budejovice, who had constructed “the Flying Flea” himself about 35 years ago.
Participants in Saturday’s event, including the widow of the legendary RAF pilot Frantisek Fajtl and another living RAF pilot Alois Dubec, commemorated not only the battle of Jindrichuv Hradec, but also its liberation and the Victory in May 1945.
Burian welcomed the honorary guests and he appreciated that the wartime pilots had arrived despite their high age.
General Bocek will turn 92 this year. His comrade-in-arms Dubec is of the same age.
Dubec reminded of the first meeting of the Czechoslovak WWII pilots held in Jindrichuv Hradec in 1995 which still many of them attended.
“At present only the five last RAF pilots live in the Czech Republic as far as we know,” Burian said.
Apart from Bocek and Dubec, those are Imrich Gablech, Pavel Vransky and Jaroslav Hofrichter.
The air battle over Jindrichuv Hradec occurred in August 1944. It is remembered in a display of the local museum in this town.
